Waiheke Air Services, NZ
 

Does anyone know if Waiheke Air Services are still operating in Auckland?

I was given this link: http://www.waihekeair.co.nz/ but it doesn't seem to work.

If not, who is flying to Waiheke Island these days?

Thanks.

This story from the Waiheke Week, published in Feb 2005, might shed some light on your question.

Airfield for sale;



Heather Wright



The future of airline services on Waiheke is up in the air, with the Island's sole airfield on the market and local airline Waiheke Air still grounded - but hopeful of gaining clearance for take-off soon.

Denis Musson, director and shareholder of airfield owner Waiheke Air Services, confirms the airfield - which includes a 650m runway, helipad and 256m2 hanger - is on the market.

He says he has had several enquiries already with about 50 per cent coming from aviation interests who would keep the field operational. The remaining enquires are coming from people interested in other forms of development for the site.

"I'd say it's about 50:50 [as to whether the airfield will remain]," he says.

Mr Musson says the decision to sell is "just an age thing with us. We own both the vineyard and the airfield and the kids are more interested in the vineyard, so it was a pragmatic decision for us".

The airfield gained resource consent in 1995, after a long fight for consent. At that time, Waiheke also had an airfield across the valley at Stony Ridge. The Stony Ridge airfield closed a couple of years later.

Mr Musson says he'd like to see the airfield retained, but believes it needs to be turned into an aviation park, with associated visitor facilities. The field is included in Waiheke Real Estate's listings this week with an asking price of $2.35 million.

Meanwhile, Waiheke Air chief executive Cees van Heemert says he hopes the Civil Aviation Authority will approve the company's staff list within a couple of weeks, allowing the airline to begin flying again within a month.

The airline has been grounded for more than a month after it lost its chief pilot and couldn't find a replacement. A deal with Mountain Air, which flew for Waiheke Air for a brief period, also fell through.

Mr van Heemert says he notified CAA that Waiheke Air could not continue flying about five weeks ago.

A possible chief pilot has now been located and his profile has been sent to CAA for approval, along with a request for the "re-instatement" of the previous staff - put on hold when the airline notified CAA - including the safety and maintenance officers.

Mr van Heemert says he's hoping to hear back from CAA within a couple of weeks.

He says internal problems at the company - including misappropriation of funds - at the beginning of the year have been resolved and potential investors have expressed an interest in buying into the company.

Waiheke Air is owned by Mr van Heemert, former chief pilot Mike McGuire and Brian Saward.

Thanks.

What about Skydive Waiheke? (http://www.skydivewaiheke.co.nz/)

Do they use the Waiheke airfield? Wondering if anyone knows what they fly?

Is that the old Claris field?
Im sure some kind soul would pay $2.35mill kiwis for people to play aeroplanes on.
Tin remembers Pauanui Aero-tel and airstrip in 1972 for $130000 :{

Tin mate, wrong island, Claris is on Great Barrier! Must be Old-timers catching up with you!!:eek:

Yer I thunk it had moved a bit closer to Aucklabama in the skydivers picture http://www.augk18.dsl.pipex.com/Smileys/old.gif

Are these guys seriously having trouble finding a Chief Pilot? I would have thought that plenty of young CPLs would be after that job.

Unless they are flying doggy old singles and paying nothing... ;)

hmmm
 

"...flying doggy old singles and paying nothing... "

ahhh.....what is GA? man I love Jeapordy:}

I'd imagine that the abundance of young cpl's looking for GA jobs and no 'oldies' (waits for worms to crawl out of can) wanting to stay/change companies is the reason they can't find a Cheif Pilot. Aren't there some fantastic CAA rules restricting CP's to having spent 3 years in the company doing the routes? Some ppl used to get away with 700hrs ato I think, but the new red tape arrived not long ago to sufficate GA further.

Anyway, now I've forgotten what I was talking about....:confused:

I'd imagine AA would look pretty cool from 13000'
:ok:

Skytops,
Skydive Waiheke do use the airfield, and operate a Cessna 205 mostly in the weekends. The DZ owner is their main pilot. They don't do many tandems, but are always looking for P/T pilots!!
MOE :ok: